Blind Eyes
by Amber-Hime
Summary: Snapshots in the life of a Branch Hyuuga, jounin of the Leaf turned mother and missing nin. Oneshot. Prequel.


**Authors Note: So this is generally ****a prequel or prologue of sorts for another story I'm on featuring 2 OCs, Kameko and Nagisa. This basically just provides a history for Kameko and Nagisa that I don't really delve I to in the main story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

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><p>The sun was rising slowly over the Hokage mountain, shinobi were starting to settle into training regimes, civilians were setting up stalls and shops in the marketplace, and little 5 year old Hyuuga Kameko glared hatefully at the head of her family through glassy, lilac eyes. Her head hurt, as if she'd pressed a hot iron bar against it, but refused to let tears well up in her eyes as the head of her clan, a young Hyuuga Hiashi, looked down at her after removing his hand from her head where he had branded her with the Caged Bird Seal exclusive only to the Hyuuga Clan which would enslave her to him and the Elders.<p>

She bowed stiffly, determinedly ignoring the pain, and turned her thoughts to less unpleasant subjects; such as how she was going to hide the seal on her forehead when she returned to the Academy after the weekend. She sighed as she passed through the doors and hurried into her mother's open arms, deciding that she'd deal with it when she got to it.

"Kame-chan, are you okay? Does it hurt? Do I need to take you to the hospital for a checkup?" Her mother babbled as she hugged her only daughter tightly; refusing to let go. Kameko bared with it; the least she could do to soothe her poor civilian mother's nerves after already having decided to become a kunoichi rather than a servant for the Head family like most of the women from her direct line of branch Hyuuga ancestors.

"No Okaasan, can I go to the library, there's a jutsu that I want to research."

XX

Kameko sat quietly in the back of the classroom, observing the rest of the Academy graduates in the room. There were certainly a lot of early graduates, or 'geniuses', this year, she mused, as she fiddled with the Hitai-ate that was tied tightly around her forehead, half hidden by her bangs. There were a range of children that she hadn't met before; had never had classes with.

A couple of 11-12 year olds; likely from civilian families as they looked awkwardly at the younger students. A class of ten year olds, half a class of nine year olds with the rest of the room being made up of a few kids in her class and the more competent (less likely to stab themselves while tossing a kunai) kids in the class of 8 years olds that used the classroom across the hall from hers.

There were a few younger than her room but she didn't worry about that too much. They most likely weren't very good; the approaching conflict between the nations had lowered Konoha's standards for Academy graduates, as most of them would fail the genin test set by there senseis anyway. She wasn't too worried about being shown up; not with the tricks she had under her belt. The civilian kids were practically useless, and her Byakugan gave her a unique advantage when her favourite techniques.

"- and Kameko Hyuuga. Please wait in room 6 for your jounin sensei." She walked to the door without soaring a glance at the new team she had. She did, however, let her gaze wander to few graduates she wouldn't have minded sharing a team with, before stalking out of the door; already irritated with the 10 year old, would-be shinobis bickering.

XX

Kameko bit her lip and steeled her nerves before walking up to the spandex-clad boy shouting about youth or some nonsense to his exasperated and mildly amused teammates. Her first C-rank had gone awfully; they had been ambushed by a group of Iwa chuunin while running a message to the border patrol near the mountains. One of her teammates, the civilian boy, had been injured badly by a Katon jutsu after jumping in front of her other teammate, and she herself had been bruised and battered by a chuunin, as her sensei dealt with the last one.

The only reason she survived being that she managed to trap him in a genjutsu, her Gentle Fist having no affect on a more experienced taijutsu user. The whole exchange had occurred in just under a minute, but the experience had shown her just how outmatched she was in taijutsu, regardless of her supposed unbeatable Gentle Fist style. Her teammates counted themselves lucky; she needed to get stronger. There was no one in the Hyuuga clan willing to waste time trying to train an already mildly competent kunoichi kid when a war was brewing, so she needed outside help.

"Excuse me, Gai-san? My name is Kameko. I was wondering if you had some time spare to train with me?" She watched with clear, blank eyes as Gai stopped his youthful tirade and turned around to face her. She watched as his face morphed in confusion for a few seconds, obviously having recognised her as the aloof Hyuuga girl from his Academy class, before immediately switching back into a blinding smile.

"Yosh! Of course I shall train with you, beautiful flower!" He pulled an odd pose and somehow pulled a seal-less Genjutsu that showed sparkles around him. She thanked him, and pointedly ignored his snickering teammates in the background, only allowing herself a small smirk as one of the boys managed to stab himself with the senbon hanging out of his mouth.

XX

Kameko was 11 when she passed her chuunin exams, her second attempt, and was suitably embarrassed whenever it was brought up because she was promoted only 6 months after Gai, which implied that he was more talented than her. Unacceptable. She was sure that she could have been promoted in summer exam rather than the winter, if only she hadn't gotten grazed with a Suna shinobi's senbon in the second task that caused her to forfeit the finals due to the deadly poison that the senbon was coated with. She should have known better than to get hit with a weapon from a shinobi whose country if famous for its poison users.

Gai of course, thought nothing of it, and dragged her out to a nice barbecue restaurant in the south of Konoha, determined to celebrate her success, regardless of her embarrassment. Kameko doesn't quite recall when they became friends; but she doesn't regret it, despite her family's disapproving stares and the embarrassing situations she was pulled into everyday. No, becoming Gai's friend was definitely one of the better decisions that she's made in her life regardless of the repercussions.

"My Eternal Rival! You are so hip and cool, I challenge you to 300 laps around Konoha, backwards on our hands!" Except for when he sees Kakashi and forgets that he was treating her to barbecue in favour of showing up his supposed rival. Kakashi looked up and glared at him, while she waved at him from behind Gai as the Uchiha boy laughed and pointed and the medic blushed and stammered a little. Understandable, most people had that reaction when faced with Gai.

"Oh no, you can compete tomorrow. Your taking me out for dinner tonight so move it!" No, she didn't regret becoming friends with Gai, weird quirks and even weirder rivals included. She regretted that she failed the summer exams, but she couldn't deny that she dominated the winter exams. But above all else, she definitely didn't regret that she'd turned her and Gai's chuunin celebration dinner into a date.

XX

She had her first kill during the Third Shinobi War, on the border between Fire and Wind. She thought that it was ironic. Her teammates, a medical kunoichi and a shinobi who specialised in Doton ninjutsu, were older, experienced chuunins who had fought their way through Suna shinobi before, and she was used to sparring with a taijutsu beast and dodging his Dynamic Entries. They had no chance.

The leaf kunoichi immediately fell back, falling into a standard defensive taijutsu stance and raised a kunai in front of her, unwilling to fight but skilled enough to defend herself and only intervene if one of her comrades needed healing. Her shinobi teammate immediately jumped into the fray, tossing a half mastered B-rank earth jutsu at an enemy, but she didn't see if it was successful or not; her attention immediately taken by the two remaining enemy.

She swiftly cast a genjutsu onto one, making the burly man believe that he was fighting away multiple enemies, when he was really slicing through thin air. She engaged the other chuunin in a taijutsu match, swiftly disabling the tenketsu in his left arm before he realised that the Hitai-ate wrapped around her eyes was hiding a kekkei genkai rather than acting as an arrogant fashion statement.

She had found a few weeks previously that her chakra pools grew when forced to compensate for her Byakugan in constant use, and had taken to wrapping her headband around her eyes to hide the bulging veins and every appearance of her dojutsu. She also enjoyed freaking out the civilian children who thought she was blind until she could see them sneaking up on her from every direction.

She dimly noted that the medical kunoichi had hit the man in her genjutsu with a thrown kunai, burying the weapon up to its hilt in his forehead. The Shinobi had pierced his opponent with a general Doton bullet jutsu. She slid landed a palm strike to her enemy's chest, ignoring the sight of his heart being pierced by her chakra. Sometimes she hated having near perfect vision.

XX

Kameko was barely 15 years old when she was promoted to jounin during the summer promotions. While it was a struggle; she lost count of the amount of kunai she'd tossed, senbon she'd been hit with, genjutsus she'd cast and fireballs she'd barely dodged, she considered it worth it. The clan head, Hiashi-sama, had reluctantly congratulated her, not that it was worth anything to a branch member like Kameko. Her mother had even cried (not that she hadn't cried at her genin and chuunin promotions too, but that was beside the point).

She and Gai went out to their usual barbecue place for a celebratory dinner as he'd made jounin too, and stopped to say hello to Asuma and Kurenai ("It's not a date!") and she hadn't even complained when Kakashi had shown up, reading porn of all things (the guy was even weirder than he was at 12 and wow isn't that saying something?) and generally antagonising Gai. She and Gai had gone back to his house for Sake after grabbing some dango to go (she hadn't left until morning).

Kameko glared down at the little pink stick in her hands, cursing Kami, the Shinigami and every higher being that came to mind. She was trained to be a kunoichi; she was one of the most deadly women in Fire Country, she could destroy an entire government if given a months notice, she could drive a man to suicide with 3 hand seals and 5 minutes, she could take down men twice her size in a matter of seconds. She was not meant to deal with this.

Kameko hated that little red plus sign. She really did.

XX

If anyone had noticed a genjutsu surrounding her stomach a few months after her jounin exam, well no one mentioned it. It's funny, she mused idly, how no one can really recognise a genjutsu unless it affects them or their objective directly. She had, after a particularly stressful bout of morning sickness ("I'm fine, it's probably just something I ate.") considered telling everyone, dead career be damned. Then she looked in the mirror and saw the ugly seal on her forehead.

She would not subject a child, her child, to life as a branded branch member of the Hyuuga clan. She couldn't; never mind the stigma of being raised by a teenage mother in a noble clan or the fact that she wasn't married, no matter the 3 steady years she and Gai had been together. No, she would never let unborn baby be raised in that environment.

So when the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked seven months after her jounin exam, she took her chance and ran, weaving a genjutsu around her to look simply like a terrified civilian girl. She didn't stop running until she had crossed the border to Wind Country, and she didn't drop the genjutsu until Lightning. It wasn't until she had finally settled down in a small village in Wave, around 2 years after she left her home, that she allowed herself to grieve for the life and love she left behind.

She didn't tell her daughter, beautiful, smart, Nagisa with her father's colouring, until she was 5 years old after she was found crying after a pair of Konoha shinobi, not anyone she knew, had stayed in her onsen. Then she taught Nagisa how to become a kunoichi.


End file.
